The present invention relates to an arrangement for collecting images that are viewed by content recipients so that Web use reporting may include copies of images.
The Internet has proven to be an efficient and popular mechanism for the dissemination of content from content providers to content recipients. Content providers in many cases are organizations, such as businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and the like, who operate Web sites in order to offer content that can be downloaded by content recipients. The content recipients are often consumers who use computers typically located in their dwellings in order to access the content offered by content providers. However, content recipients may also be other businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and the like, and in many cases, a content provider is also a content recipient.
Content is typically provided directly by a Web site to content recipients. However, in many instances, additional information is accessible from one Web site by way of click-through URLs contained in the content directly provided by another Web site. Also, content provided by content providers to content recipients either directly, or indirectly through click-through URLs, frequently includes IMAGES such as advertisements in which organizations advertise their goods and/or services.
The operators of Web sites offering content such as advertisements to content recipients, as well as those who create and place such content as offerings by Web sites, generally desire information about Web use. This information includes the number of times that the content is accessed, the amount of exposure of the content, the demographics of those who access the content, and the like. Web site owners, and those who create and place content, may then draw market relevant conclusions from this Web use information.
Several arrangements have been proposed as attempts to acquire Web use information. For example, it is known for a Web site to itself measure the number of times that content recipients access its content offerings. However, such an arrangement provides little information about exposure and demographics. Also, this measurement at a single Web site provides little information with respect to the content offered by other Web sites, such as competitive Web sites. Moreover, even if measurements are made at a plurality of Web sites, it is difficult to extrapolate the resulting data over relevant segments of the population.
Therefore, it has also been proposed to install software meters on the computers of panelists so that access, exposure, and demographic information relative to the content downloaded by the panelists can be measured and extrapolated over the population as a whole, in much the same way that TV ratings are generated. According to this proposal, the software meters track operating system messages in order to detect communications of interest. When the software meters detect communications of interest, the software meters log the titles of the corresponding windows which are displayed to a computer user because Internet content, as well as application software interfaces, are typically provided to the user in a window format. However, logging titles of windows is not particularly useful because such titles can be very generic. For example, one such title which is popular with many content providers is simply xe2x80x9cHome Page.xe2x80x9d This title provides little indication of the information supplied to the content recipient.
Tagging of Internet content has been broadly suggested in the context of requiring widespread industry cooperation. However, it is unlikely that such widespread industry cooperation is attainable.
In addition, known arrangements which collect information, particularly survey information, relative to content offered by Web sites are not able to accurately determine the specific content that is accessed by panelists at any particular time because the content changes depending upon the class of content recipient, the type of browser used by the content recipient, the time of day, the day of the month, the month of the year, and so on. Moreover, many of those who are provided Web use information request that copies of the accessed content be included in the reported Web use information.
The present invention accurately determines the specific content that is accessed by panelists and is able to access that content for inclusion in reports of Web usage.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a data collection server is arranged to collect Web use data from a panel of content recipients. The Web use data is of the type that provides a statistical basis for extrapolating the Web use data over at least a relevant population segment, and the Web use data includes information about use of an image downloaded from a Web site to a member of the panel. The data collection server is arranged to retrieve the image from the member of the panel.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of metering web use comprises the following steps: a) retrieving, from a content recipient, information identifying an image downloaded from a Web site to the content recipient; and b) retrieving the image based upon the identifying information.
In accordance still another aspect of the present invention, a method performed at a content recipient comprises the following steps: a) receiving an image from a Web site; b) extracting a checksum from the image; c) transmitting the checksum to a data collection site; and d) transmitting the image to the data collection site in response to a message from the data collection site indicating that the content recipient should transmit the image.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a method performed at a data collection site comprises the following steps: a) receiving a checksum from a content recipient, wherein the checksum is related to an image transmitted to the content recipient; b) comparing a reference checksum to the received checksum; c) if the received and reference checksums do not match, transmitting to the content recipient a message from the data collection site indicating that the content recipient should transmit the image; and, d) receiving the image from the content recipient in response to step c).
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a method performed at a data collection site comprises the following steps: a) receiving a first checksum and a URL from a content recipient, wherein the first checksum and the URL are related to a first image transmitted to the content recipient; b) retrieving a second image from a Web site based upon the URL; c) computing a second checksum corresponding to the second image; d) saving the second image in connection with the content recipient if the first and second checksums match; e) transmitting to the content recipient a request for the first image if the first and second checksums do not match; and, f) receiving the first image from the content recipient in response to step e).